Saturday, February 24, 2007

Boulder, CO – February 20, 2007 –The continuing growth of craft beer entered double-digit territory in 2006, with sales by craft brewers up 11.7% by volume for the year. This comes on top of strong growth in each of the prior three years and illustrates the ongoing surge of consumer interest in craft beers.

Growth of the craft brewery industry was 9% in 2005, 7% in 2004, 3% in 2003. As comparison, total US-produced beer sales were up by only 0.4% in 2006, while imports increased by 14.6%. (These last two figures are from the Beer Institute.)